Shade Sail Design & Planning
Design Elements
Shade sail design & planning generally has two key elements.
1. Shade - Planning for shade coverage is often a little tricky as the suns position changes with the time of day, and the time of the year. The height of the shade sail also effects where the shade is cast. This generally means lower is better.
2. Looks ( Style and Shape). It is important to consider your shape, colour, and in particular try to vary your fixing heights. Varied fixing heights assist with water run off, shade stability, tensioning and load forces created by the wind.
1. Shade - Planning for shade coverage is often a little tricky as the suns position changes with the time of day, and the time of the year. The height of the shade sail also effects where the shade is cast. This generally means lower is better.
2. Looks ( Style and Shape). It is important to consider your shape, colour, and in particular try to vary your fixing heights. Varied fixing heights assist with water run off, shade stability, tensioning and load forces created by the wind.
Shapes & Sizes
Sail shapes can be almost any shape. Triangles, Squares, Rectangles, Hexagons and so on. It is popular to have multiple shades and shapes to add more appeal to your shade sail.
Fixing heights also dramatically change the look of the shade, it's function and the price.
Shade sail size is also a very important factor in design. The larger the shade sail, the stronger the structural components need to be.
Posts
Posts come in different shapes (round or square), different thicknesses and diameters.
It is imperitive that appropriate sizes are used and that footings are suitable for the design.
Fixings
Shade fixings vary greatly depending on the area that needs to be covered.
Should you require your shade to be fixed to a building structure, it is important that you seek advice from an engineer or a shade sail expert to ensure the the structure is able to cope with the high forces sail shades can generate on fixing points.
As a general rule it is often recommeded to fix shade sails to their own independant steel posts.
